Problems of Landlords and the Rights of Their Tenants

"Common sense tells us that too many people occupy the apartments. I can almost guarantee you that the landlord did not lease his units to such large numbers of people. Tenants not only repair their cars on the property or in the street adjacent to it, but often leave their disabled vehicles for weeks and months, which means the property owner is liable for any difficulties resulting from their presence."

"There is regular pest-control service at all of our buildings that began with a full clean-out spraying of the entire building when we purchased the property. Nevertheless, we still have complaints about cockroaches. We often find that the problem is perpetuated by tenants' reluctance to properly and consistently dispose of garbage and their unwillingness to cooperate with the service men."

"It is our experience that to evict a tenant on any grounds other than non-payment of rent is a virtual impossibility. This goes for drug dealers and prostitutes as well as those who cause continuing disturbances, destroy property or mer"

A property owner with five years of experience managing rental properties in Los Angeles responds to an article about housing conditions in Huntington Beach's Commodore Circle neighborhood. The writer acknowledges tenant hardships while presenting landlord perspectives often overlooked in housing disputes. Key issues include tenants occupying units beyond lease agreements with excessive occupancy, vehicle repairs and abandoned cars creating liability concerns, pest control challenges stemming from tenant cooperation failures, and the practical difficulty of evicting tenants for lease violations beyond non-payment of rent. The writer argues that uninformed readers may not understand the systemic obstacles property owners face in maintaining properties and enforcing lease terms.

Read at Los Angeles Times